Silverware for City pair Cranfield and Palmer

Peterborough City Rowing Club won four medals at the British Masters Championships at the weekend.

The prestigious event took place over the 1,000-metre course at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham and was scheduled for two days.

Stuart Holmes and Chris Elder won a bronze medal.

Bad weather, however, meant racing from 2pm on Sunday was cancelled, leaving several rowers disappointed. Among them was Peterborough’s Women’s Masters C eight, who had earlier qualified for the final.

There was still plenty to celebrate on Saturday for Peterborough City though.

Leading the way with two medals were Steve Cranfield and Ian Palmer. They claimed a silver medal in a composite crew with Star and Leicester oarsmen in the A/B coxless quads, and a bronze medal in the Masters C doubles.

In the quads final they finished only six seconds away from a gold medal while in the doubles they were just a second away from winning another silver medal.

Other doubles medallists for Peterborough were Chris Elder and Stuart Holmes, who took home a bronze in the Masters A doubles.

They had a great start to the day as they had the fastest qualifying time in their category, setting a record of 3:56.74 and that made them the only crew in their category to clock a time under four minutes.

This was followed by a very close final in which they finished only two seconds behind the winners.

The fourth Peterborough City medal was a bronze and that was won by Carole Hook in the Women’s Masters B singles event. Hook also joined Nottingham rower Heather Wesson in the Women’s Masters A doubles where they just missed out on the final by five seconds.

Other Peterborough rowers in action were Steve Tuck, Jack Ward, Jim Burt and Graham Barks, who were sixth in the Open Masters E coxless quads, and Joan Heath and Anita Carter, who were fifth in the final eliminator in the Women’s Championship Masters E doubles.